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Old 12-11-2010, 12:58 PM
 
1 posts, read 6,676 times
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Sorry for the typo! The title should read: JOB Opportunity... :-) Mod repaired title

I'm an African-American businessman with an excellent job opportunity in Naperville. My family and I are looking for a beautiful, safe and diverse community with excellent schools. Every website, blog and discussion forum I've read has described Naperville as "the perfect place to live." Is this true for ALL RACES or just whites? Are there any black people in Naperville? Do the top public schools have ANY black teachers? Are there black stay-at-home mothers in the area? Are there diverse stay-at-home mothers groups for my wife to join? Are the city youth activities (soccer, baseball, scouts, etc) diverse? Are any black people on the city council, planning boards, school boards, etc?

We found two churches that we're interested in joining: one is in Lisle and the other is in Naperville. Living near our church family is extremely important also!

Our budget is no more than $500,000. We want a 4+ bedroom, 3+ bathroom home with at least 3,000 sq ft.

Please feel free to suggest other areas outside of Naperville that fit my criteria ! I look forward to reading your OPEN and HONEST thoughts!

Last edited by linicx; 12-27-2010 at 04:28 AM..
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Old 12-11-2010, 01:09 PM
 
Location: South Chicagoland
4,111 posts, read 9,012,108 times
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You bring up a lot of good questions but I'd just like to let you know that we recently had a very similar thread. The OP had a job in Aurora which is right next to Naperville.

//www.city-data.com/forum/chica...executive.html
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Old 12-11-2010, 04:22 PM
 
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I'd suggest looking into bolingbrook. The city is quite diverse and has some higher end housing that ties into the naperville schools. Otherwise aurora is a good place to look as well.
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Old 12-11-2010, 05:08 PM
 
Location: Johns Island
2,499 posts, read 4,395,158 times
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Are there any black people in Naperville? Yes, but not a lot. Wikipedia says 2.5%. You can go to downtown Naperville and not see any Black people. But the White people there won't stare at you in shock...
Do the top public schools have ANY black teachers? I would assume no.
Are there black stay-at-home mothers in the area? There appear to be Mocha Moms chapters in the area - Fox Valley and Will County - go to their website for more info.
Are there diverse stay-at-home mothers groups for my wife to join? No idea.
Are the city youth activities (soccer, baseball, scouts, etc) diverse? I'm sure that the blacks that do live in Naperville participate in these activities. You will not feel excluded, you will not feel pressure to not participate. Remember, women's basketball great Candace Parker is from Naperville!
Are any black people on the city council, planning boards, school boards, etc? Seems unlikely.

We found two churches that we're interested in joining: one is in Lisle and the other is in Naperville. Living near our church family is extremely important also! I think I know the Lisle church you're referring to. You'll be happy there - I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Our budget is no more than $500,000. We want a 4+ bedroom, 3+ bathroom home with at least 3,000 sq ft. With this price range, you should be fine in Naperville. But don't expect to have much money left over.


I am Black, never lived in Naperville, worked in Lisle/Bolingbrook/Naperville/Wheaton areas for 12 years. Always lived in Chicago/Oak Park.
You will be isolated in Naperville. You will rarely see other black people during your daily travels around town. There will likely not be any other black kids on your street for your kids to play with. If your kids are older, there will be few other black kid for them to socialize with, or date. If these things matter to you, then Naperville is not your best choice.
But Naperville is not the type of town that will make you feel unwelcome. Given all the publicity about Naperville being such a great town, I would guess that most residents are not from Naperville, so everyone has in common the fact that they are transplants.
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Old 12-22-2010, 12:44 AM
 
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If you are looking to live near more black people and send your kids to good schools, I would suggest Bolingbrook. If you are willing to drive a little farther to work then I would suggest Oak Park or River Forest (OPRF). There's a larger black presence in this school district than in Naperville. Plus, OPRF has always had a very good school district. Anywhere else would be too far like Homewood/Flossmoor or Evanston school district.
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Old 12-22-2010, 09:31 AM
 
Location: Johns Island
2,499 posts, read 4,395,158 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by suburban_boy View Post
If you are looking to live near more black people and send your kids to good schools, I would suggest Bolingbrook. If you are willing to drive a little farther to work then I would suggest Oak Park or River Forest (OPRF). There's a larger black presence in this school district than in Naperville. Plus, OPRF has always had a very good school district. Anywhere else would be too far like Homewood/Flossmoor or Evanston school district.
Homewood/Flossmoor has the benefit of no traffic in either direction. I-80 to I-355 is wide open.
Oak Park to Naperville will be 45 minutes in the morning (at least), and probably an hour at night, so it's not any better even thought it's technically closer.
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Old 12-22-2010, 10:05 AM
 
Location: IL
2,987 posts, read 5,225,096 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ILBound View Post
Sorry for the typo! The title should read: JOB Opportunity... :-)

I'm an African-American businessman with an excellent job opportunity in Naperville. My family and I are looking for a beautiful, safe and diverse community with excellent schools. Every website, blog and discussion forum I've read has described Naperville as "the perfect place to live." Is this true for ALL RACES or just whites? Are there any black people in Naperville? Do the top public schools have ANY black teachers? Are there black stay-at-home mothers in the area? Are there diverse stay-at-home mothers groups for my wife to join? Are the city youth activities (soccer, baseball, scouts, etc) diverse? Are any black people on the city council, planning boards, school boards, etc?

We found two churches that we're interested in joining: one is in Lisle and the other is in Naperville. Living near our church family is extremely important also!

Our budget is no more than $500,000. We want a 4+ bedroom, 3+ bathroom home with at least 3,000 sq ft.

Please feel free to suggest other areas outside of Naperville that fit my criteria ! I look forward to reading your OPEN and HONEST thoughts!
For Naperville, you might want to look at some zips in district 204, there are some that are more ethnically diverse, you can look up specific zips in the latest census figures. Even with that, the black population is only like 5% in those zips, as there are larger indian, asian, and hispanic populations.

The preschool & elementary school my kids go to are fairly diverse. I actually have never paid attention to what color the teachers are there, so I don't know how diverse they are.

The city council is currently mostly older white people, although that will be changing in the spring election, as many are retiring. I have no idea what the new council will look like, but I am guessing they will focus on the same topics as usual: keeping Naperville family friendly, a focus on safety, using funds efficiently, and economic growth.

For a house that size for $500K, you may want to look a bit further south in Naperville...but, a realtor could help you out with that.
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Old 12-22-2010, 12:37 PM
 
655 posts, read 1,120,174 times
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In response to the question of black teachers in the schools...my daughter attends a grade school in D203 and her 3rd grade teacher is black. The assistant principal is also black. She also has two black students in her class My other daughter is in a private Kindergarten that also has a black teacher and several black students. Our previous nanny was black and grew up in Naperville. I could go on and on. I am not sure why JacksonPanther would just "assume" that there would be no black teachers.

It is true that Naperville is not the most ethnically diverse, however, I don't walk around and become shocked if I see someone of another race/ethnic background. We have plenty of room for everyone here.

I hope that you find the home that you are looking for and that you are happy wherever you land. Good luck to you.
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Old 12-22-2010, 12:38 PM
 
829 posts, read 2,076,440 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Homewood/Flossmoor has the benefit of no traffic in either direction. I-80 to I-355 is wide open.
Oak Park to Naperville will be 45 minutes in the morning (at least), and probably an hour at night, so it's not any better even thought it's technically closer.
I live in olympia fields and I love the commute times and favorable traffic conditions. The homewood-flossmoor area gets my vote also.

Last edited by allen2323; 12-22-2010 at 12:54 PM..
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Old 12-22-2010, 01:07 PM
 
28,455 posts, read 84,921,999 times
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Default This sort of question has come up before...

I believe there are threasds that compared Hnsdale Central to OPRF and we were fortunate to have some parent weigh in. As I recall the minority parent that lived in Hinsdale made the argument that there kids experience was excellent at HC despite having very small number of minorities. The teachers made no assumptions or excuses that their performance was somehow expected to be subpar, the kids got good grades and went on to selective colleges. That is what it is all about.

Bolingbrook has major performance issues. I don't understand why anyone would choose to be in school with large numbers of underperforming students or a large performance gap between groups. Uniformly high achieve,net should be the idelal regardless of skin color.

I would assume the OP was chosen for his job beciae of his ability to perform at a high level, not because he looks good on a diversity brochure. Why anyone would suggest that living far away from his job, so he'd be unable to spend time after work with his family and doing the kinds of family- centric activites that folks who live close to work are able to enjoy are really missing the point -- the things that make Naperville an attractive place to live / work do not apply to any one race.

As whakru states, the Naperville schools do make an extra effort to find talented teachers and administrstors REGARDLESS of skin color because that is the right thing to do. As a percentage, the minority presence is tiny, but with over 140k people there is plenty of range of people..
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